Cranberry Kvass

There is a very popular drink in the north of Russia, called cranberry mors (klyukvenni mors), which is made by slightly cooking cranberries with water and sugar to get a tart and delightful concoction. As a kid, I used to love drinking it during a session of banya (Russian wet sauna) where it was a common practice to keep some on hand, along with a thermos of rosehip tea. It was a much needed energy replenishment after getting a hefty dose of whipping with a birch ‘venik‘ and intense avoidance of looking at comfortably unclad babushkas.

Some folks would add bakers yeast or sourdough starter to mors to get a fizzy drink that we called kvass. Kvass (from the word ‘kvasit’ – ‘to ferment’) can be any beverage fermented with yeast, wild from a sourdough starter, or regular store-bought kind. Russian kvass was never made with the help of whey or any milk based fermentation starter, even though the internet is full of kvass recipes that use whey.

Classic Russian kvass is made with rye bread or rye flour (like in this version) but the variations are endless. Cranberry drinks were one of my favorites because of their beautiful bright color; and I bet that gorgeous red is the reason my toddlers can’t get enough of it.

Of course, uncooked berries retain the most of nutrients but it doesn’t work very well with cranberries, they need to soften via cooking in order to release the flavor. What folks in my home town did is cook cranberries until they start to open up, or to burst, then remove them from heat and separate the pulp from skins in order to keep more goodness, and only after that continue cooking the skins. The bursting happens fairly quickly, well before water comes to boiling so I like to think that this drink has a lot of cranberry wonderfulness untouched. And after fermenting, we get additional vitamins plus the probiotics.

I think cranberry kvass, like any fruit kvass, should be fermented only for a short time, no longer than 36 hours, and better about 24 hours. We are trying to benefit from metabolism of lactic acid bacteria and reduce activity of alcohol forming yeasts, which strive on fruit/berry sugar. That’s why fermenting beverages like this with champagne yeast doesn’t work – champagne yeast is bred to feed on fruit sugars and form alcohol quickly, which defeats the purpose of us looking for a probiotic beverage. On the other hand, sourdough starter bacteria/yeast look for complex sugars, like the ones found in flour and there is only so much forage for them in a fruit based drink. So… we allow lactic acid bacteria to quickly proliferate, and then move them to cold, which would stop alcohol formation but wouldn’t affect well-being of our good probiotic guys.

HOW TO MAKE CRANBERRY KVASS

Ingredients
12-16 oz cranberries, fresh or thawed from frozen
1/2 gallon water
1/2 cup sugar (or more if you like it sweet)
1 tablespoon rye sourdough starter (how to make rye sourdough starter)
1 tablespoon sprouted rye flour (optional)

Instructions
Wash cranberries. Place cranberries and water into a large pot; turn heat to low.
As soon as the berries start to burst open, turn heat off, remove them with a slotted spoon and strain through a sieve to separate flash from skins. Set the flash aside.

Return skins back to the pot and simmer for 10 minutes or so, until the water turns bright red in color.
Remove from heat, strain and discard the skins (or blend them and add them back to the liquid for more fiber); add sugar and whisk until it’s dissolved.
Cool; add pulp.
Add rye sourdough starter and sprouted rye flour, if using; shake well.
Cover tightly, and leave at room temperature for 24 -36 hours.
At this point, you can strain it again to remove any large particles (I don’t), cool, shake and drink.

Print Recipe

Cranberry Kvass

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Fermentation1 day d 12 hours hrs

Course: Drinks

Cuisine: RUSSIAN

Servings: 1 /2 gallon

Author: Valeria - Beets 'n Bones blog

Ingredients

• 12-16 oz cranberries fresh or thawed from frozen
• 1/2 gallon water
• 1/2 cup sugar or more if you like it sweet
• 1 tablespoon rye sourdough starter how to make rye sourdough starter
• 1 tablespoon sprouted rye flour optional

Instructions

• Wash cranberries. Place cranberries and water into a large pot; turn heat to low.
• As soon as the berries start to burst open, turn heat off, remove them with a slotted spoon and strain through a sieve to separate flash from skins. Set the flash aside.
• Return skins back to the pot and simmer for 10 minutes or so, until the water turns bright red in color.
• Remove from heat, strain and discard the skins (or blend them and add them back to the liquid for more fiber); add sugar and whisk until it's dissolved.
• Cool; add pulp.
• Add rye sourdough starter and sprouted rye flour, if using; shake well.
• Cover tightly, and leave at room temperature for 24 -36 hours.
• At this point, you can strain it again to remove any large particles (I don't), cool and drink.

Notes

You will probably notice sediment on the bottom of your kvass during fermentation. You can keep the more clear part of the kvass and toss the cloudy sediment, or just stir it all together, which is what I do.